393 Series III Volume III- Serial 124 - Union Letters, Orders, Reports
Page 393 | UNION AUTHORITIES. |
represented by able attorneys, I felt it to be my duty to attend the examination on behalf of the Government myself, as there was no provision for employing an attorney. Inclosed I send you a slip cut from a newspaper giving a report of the examination?* The report does not contain all the evidence.
The militia regiment sent to Fulton County to protect enrolling officers some days ago has not been heard from, and from that fact I infer that they have had no further trouble.
I had a report yesterday, that seemed to be reliable, that an enrolling officer had been shot in Brown County. I immediately telegraphed to the provost-marshal of the Third District, whose headquarters are in the county adjoining Brown, and this morning received a reply that no such report had reached him. I am now satisfied there was no truth in the report.
Those men implicated in the Rush County murder are in custody of the civil authorities, and the loyal citizens and detectives are still engaged in collecting evidence which may implicate others.
I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
CONRAD BAKER,
Colonel and Actg. Asst. Provost-Marshal for Indiana.
[Inclosure.]
PROVOST-MARSHAL'S OFFICE,
Terre Haute, June 18, 1863.
Colonel CONRAD BAKER,
Assistant Provost-Marshal-General:
SIR: I notified you this afternoon that one of the enrolling officers of Sullivan County, Fletcher Freeman, had been murdered this morning about 8 o"clock. He was shot in the road near his residence, the ball entering his left breast and causing death almost immediately. I also prepared a brief not upon the subject, but it was too late for the cars. I now write again more fully, although if it is possible for me to leave home I will go over to Indianapolis on the cars in the morning.
This murder, in my judgment, presents a most serious question, for it is evident that unless some step is taken promptly in reference to it the enrollment of that county cannot be completed.
I have a letter already from there in which I can informed that the Union citizens almost consider themselves as abandoned to the mercy of bands of outlaws who are led by desperate men, and that it will be impossible, if things remain in their present condition, to get anybody to undertake the work left unfinished by Mr. Freeman, who was enrolling two townships, as in one of them no other person could be found to undertake it.
But what is to be done is an important question, and should not be decided precipitately. That the men who murdered Freeman belong to those who have been lately in the habit of meeting in Sullivan and Greene Counties for military drill, there can be no doubt. These men have resolved at their public meetings that the enrollment should not take place, and have notified the enrolling officers that if they went on with it they must do so at their peril.
Their numbers are variously estimated. Some of them, who are in the habit of boasting of their strength and their ability to defy the Government, say that they have 2,000 already armed and as many
---------------
*Omitted.
---------------
Page 393 | UNION AUTHORITIES. |